Reviews

Jac has recently moved across the country with her mother for a fresh start. She's coming up on her five year anniversary of not having cancer, and it's weighing on her mind. Her mother seems to constantly worry too, which isn't helping. And now a mysterious house has appeared at the end of the cul-du-sac, and it's calling to her. If she goes in, will she ever get out?

I found this book to be quite scary in places. Unlike in text form, I couldn't skim over the scary parts. I had to read them. The audio form was good for this book.

Content Warnings

xangemthelibrarian's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

"I don't know." But she did, in fact, know.

That's the general theme of this book for me. The number of times I heard "I don't know" followed by some form of Jac admitting she felt like she knew the answer drove me up the wall like I was the skittering Mourner herself. And that wasn't even the worst part of the book.

I admired Jac's determination and instinct at the beginning, when she had other people she needed to protect. But as soon as she was alone in the house, she kept falling for all sorts of obvious tricks! (For example, the spongy wall.) Her behavior was so different between when Hazel was with her and after Hazel left. It was like the author needed Jac to dumb down a little bit so she could show off more house horrors because, until Hazel disappeared, Jac didn't fall for a single trick.

What I did think was interesting was the medical horror content. I think we will have a whole new generation of children terrified of being "eaten" by MRI machines, terrified by the knocking, buzzing, and siren-esque noises. Terrified by the smell of hospitals. Terrified by medical staff. And honestly, I feel like that was a little unfair to our health professionals, but as someone who has had a few MRIs before, the sound descriptions were on. point. I knew it was an MRI before it was even revealed to be one.

But the worst part of all? (This will spoil the ending.)

IT WAS ALL JUST A DREAM. Sort of. The house disappeared, Jac started to forget, and she woke up in the hospital with no clue what was going on. She did change in the end. She learned to appreciate that everyone gets only one life in this world, she finally opens up to Hazel, and her mother got the confrontation she deserved.

The descriptions in this book were absolutely terrifying to listen to. I literally had to turn it off when Jac's "mother" started saying "Okay???" over and over again, and start it over in the morning when it was light outside. As far as scare factor goes, this can be terrifying. I have no other word for it. But I spent so much of this story annoyed at the characters.

zombiepond's review

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adventurous dark hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

clothpeg's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

3.75

kdschaefer522's review

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emotional inspiring sad fast-paced

4.25

librerika's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Fantastic representation of trauma as a haunted house, and I love that this was written to give kids with cancer a story about a survivor amongst all the stories that use kids who died from cancer to teach other characters about life

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